Monday, August 30, 2010

We finally got the keys to our factory space a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, it coincided with our scheduled trip to Texas and California to work with our sales reps, so we really couldn't get too much done before we left.

We scheduled estimates from painters, cleaners, electricians, roofers, and contractors, then we went on our way south and west to get some orders. When we got back late last week, we jumped right in and started to get our hands dirty.

This facility was last used in the early '90's by a company that stamped metal badges and pins - police badges, commemorative pins, etc. It has been used in different capacities over the years for different industrial uses--dating back to its original use as the American Can Company facility sometime in the '30's. Inside, there was a maze of electrical and communications wiring, and fluorescent and incandescent lighting, dating from different eras, decades, and companies--some working, some not. Our first order of business is to sort out the mess and take down the non-working items from the rafters and get the ceiling ready to paint. We hired an electrician to identify what can stay and what can go. Beyond taking down all the old wiring, they are taking down 64 8-foot sections of old, heavy, inefficient fluorescent lighting fixtures and hauling it away for recycling.

This was built before some of the modern conveniences we take advantage of today were available, and as such was built to be energy eficient in its own right. The roof on the building is a "saw-tooth" roof, with windows facing north to allow in natural light, and a south facing roof sloping away from the top of the windows toward the bottom of another set. Repeated, this creates a saw-tooth profile. Not only does this provide rows of windows for natural light, but the windows are designed along a massive chain driven system to allow them to slide open, providing for air flow and hot air release during the warmer months.

The problem with all that clever engineering is that sometime a few decades ago, the previous building owners decided that all that efficiency was just too much, so they painted the windows over in black and covered the whole thing in corrugated metal. When we looked at the building last November for the first time, we immediately noticed how dark it was, and how much it would take to light the 13,000 ft. industrial space, compared to the warm natural light that was coming in the office side thanks to the great skylights they had rescued. We called in a roofer to take down a test section of the corrugated metal and scrape off the black paint. We only took down 20 ft., but the difference is amazing! The entire facility is flooded with warm, natural light in the area where we took it down. The best news is that the windows are structurally sound, and seem to be well sealed.

This week, we'll be masking off the sections of the windows that we'll be uncovering, so that when the painters come to clean and spray the ceiling next week, our windows will be clear and ready to let in all that light. Later this week we're planning to have a representative from NYSERDA come in and give us an audit to see what our lighting needs are, and what they can do to help. We anticipate a huge reduction in energy usage by allowing the natural light to come in, and as such we're hoping they will have a program to assist us in the cost of removing the metal coverings from the windows. It's not cheap.

On the office side of the facility, we got to work ourselves. We got up in the rafters and took down the decades worth of dead wiring, again leaving us with a cleaner ceiling space and an easier job for the painting contractors as they come in to spray. It's amazing how much of the conduit that was up there was dead. Probably 60-70% came down.

Conduit and wiring piled up to be recycled.

We've only just begun the demo work, and that all has to be done by the end of the week so we can paint the ceilings and walls. Look for more pics once we get to that stage and the transformation really starts to be visible.

The clock is ticking. Our equipment starts showing up on September 29th, and we'll start rolling the first sandals off the line sometime in October. In between, we have to clean, paint, open, close, tear down, build up, install, and adjust. There will be plenty of pictures to follow the action.

Beyond all that, the first is in place and full of liquid refreshment, so anyone who is in the area and doesn't mind getting a little dirty, you know where we'll be...

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Our Quest

Sandals really shouldn’t be hard. They mean different things to different people – summer, vacation, freedom, the beach, everyday foot covering (for those lucky enough) – but they shouldn’t be hard. They should be easy.

They should be comfortable as soon as you put them on. They should be made from materials and processes that are less harmful to the earth – or better yet - fully sustainable, recycled, or even recyclable. And why can’t they be made here in the US – providing jobs here and keeping our hard-earned sandal money in our own economy? Oh yeah, and they should be every bit as comfortable and durable as any other sandal without costing much more.

Well, that’s what we think. We’re out to prove it can be done. It’s going to be a pretty challenging journey to get there. For one, there aren’t any sandal factories like that in the US, so we’re going to have to build our own. Then there’s the fact that since no sandals are made here, the raw materials are pretty hard to come by. Plus the fact that some of the processes and materials we ultimately want to use don’t exist yet.

High quality, domestically manufactured, environmentally sound.

That’s the challenge we’ve accepted. We’re going to make them here. We’re going to make them with methods and materials that are friendlier to the environment, that reduce or reuse waste, and we’re going to keep pushing until we make the closed loop sandal. We’re going to do this all without sacrificing any fit, quality, or comfort you should expect from a good pair of flip flops – we actually think we can do a bit better. After all, the greenest, most job-producing sandals in the world aren’t any good if you get blisters on vacation.

We’re a long way from our goal. We’re a pretty fair distance from the starting line. We hope you join with us and follow our efforts along the way. We’ll be sharing some of our ideas and methods here and we welcome your comments, support, and criticism. We hope you check back soon, and we’ll discuss some of the events that got us believing we could make sandals here, and make sandals better.